Who are the top one percent by income?

$475,116 is the cutoff for a top 1% household income in the United States in 2019.

The top 1% household income is not the final word. Households might have quite a few people working – it is usually more appropriate to break down the 1% for individual workers, or by age. (Or, even by state or city).

Let’s look at some of the other ways to measure the top one percent by income.

Individual, household, and sex isn’t the only way to break income down, however.

These calculators and posts divide the population into even finer groups. Since it isn’t always appropriate to compare workers in different cities or workers of different ages, these posts will help answer your specific questions:

The data in these tools and posts is from the 2019 Current Population Survey survey, which means income earned between January and December of 2018.

Who are the top one percent by net worth?

The top one percent of household net worth starts at $10,374,030.10.

(This net worth threshold is as of 2016. See below.)

Net worth tends to have an even more extreme spread than income does. While many households in the United States have zero or negative net worth, the same statement isn’t valid for income. Household income also reflects transfer payments, while the government isn’t (really) in the business of transferring wealth.

Net Worth of the 10%, 1%, and .1% Households

Percentile Threshold

10%

2%

1%

0.10%

Net Worth

$1,182,390.36

$5,816,220.17

$10,374,030.10

$43,090,281.00

Looking at the one percent by net worth is more useful than income. If we had our way, a view of the top 10%, 1%, and .1% would concentrate on accumulated wealth, not affluence.

Clarity Around the Top 1%

As you can imagine, since there are a few ways to define the top 1% the topic inspires a number of questions. I’ve done my best to address the most common questions around the American top 1% here.

Does top one percent mean by income or by net worth?

Net worth is a better way to rank the top one percent than income.

If you do use income to determine the top one percent of individuals, individual income is the best choice for determining the one percent.

Net worth is a better way to rank the top one percent than income.

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Household income disguises the true income figure when there are multiple earners in a household. For example, a household may have two working spouses or a Millennial living at home. Household income also doesn’t account for the spending difference in household sizes.

Using net worth to decide on the one percent threshold is even better.

Household net worth sidesteps spending and cost of living questions because net worth is by definition not spent. Regardless of household size or location, net worth is always unspent resources.

Net worth is the accurate measure of how much ‘extra ‘a household has accumulated. (Top one percent net worth households show up as a hockey stick in inequality, too.)

At what point are you considered a millionaire?

Being a millionaire means you have accumulated one million dollars in net worth, it doesn’t mean you earn one million dollars a year. For net worth, you sum all of your assets and subtract all of your debts to come up with a number of dollars you would have if you liquidated everything.